Dr. Cyclops (1940) Albert Dekker will never be forgotten as Dr. Cyclops, the mad scientist obsessed with shrinking living creatures through the use of radium. Director Ernest B. Schoedsack carried the plot with him for several years after the success of King Kong and the subsequent failure of The Last Days of Pompeii., until finally Paramount agreed to produce it. The first horror film to be shot on three-strip Technicolor, it established all the tropes that would be later used in Jack Arnold’s The Incredible Shrinking Man – for example, a large cat attacking shrunken people. Dr. Cyclops evoked the terror of Germany’s European invasions and, later, the advent of nuclear weapons.
Burger King is burning with fever,
An aurora borealis crown of thorns,
Nesting place for killer bats
Whose droppings feed cattle.
For those who don’t have to slaughter
Chickens for their daily nuggets,
The further away from the source of food,
The less kids know what they’re eating.
Who doesn’t love French fries
That can outlast last year’s pizza box,
Or Chinese American spring rolls
Filled with cabbage and coronavirus.
Grill cooks, wearing rubber gloves
And face masks, drop squiggling shrimp
Into vegetable oil with beef tallow
For cardiovascular treats.
Obesity kills most Americans
Faster than any mutating flu virus,
For nobody in the West can outrun
A Spinosaurus thawed out from Antarctica.
[Disposable Poem February 10, 2020]
Dr. Mike
SPACESHIP 